After rising around 129 points in early trades on Tuesday, the Sensex gave up gains to end 10 points lower, dragged down by losses in Infosys, SBI and RIL, amid political talks of a no-confidence motion on FDI issue in Parliament.
After snapping a six-day losing run on Monday, the Bombay Stock Exchange 30-share Sensex resumed up in line with firm trends in global markets and improved further to a high of 18,467.91 -- a rise of 128.91 points.
However, the market slowly frittered away gains to finally close at 18,329.32, a drop of 9.68 points on profit-booking.
The Sensex lost the initial momentum on fall in Infosys (1.46 pc), SBI (1.39 pc) and RIL (1.27 pc) despite gains in M&M (3.25 pc), HDFC (2.02 pc) and Tata Power (1.81 pc).
A day after Communist Party of India (Marxist) rejected her party's proposal to bring a no-confidence motion against coalition UPA government, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee today said she has no hesitation in supporting a left-sponsored no-trust move.
While there were clear indications from opposition Janata Dal (United) that it is not inclined to the idea of such a vote, the government made it clear that it was not afraid of facing any challenge in Parliament.
"We are not not afraid. We have the numbers", Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, who is also the Leader of the House in Lok Sabha (the Lower House of the Indian Parliament), told PTI.
Analysts said investors adopted a cautious stance ahead of the Winter session of Parliament where government is planning to introduce key bills and use it as an opportunity to showcase its resolve.
The 50-share National Stock Exchange Nifty index moved up marginally by 0.15 points to 5,571.55, snapping straight seven session of losses.
Asian and European markets displayed a mixed trends as Euro-zone troubles grabbed investor attention after Moody's downgrade of France's AAA rating and before a decision on financial aid for Greece.
Key indices in China, Hong Kong and Japan ended lower while those from Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan finished higher on Tuesday.
European markets were also trading mixed in afternoon deals. France's CAC was down 0.48 per cent and the UK's FTSE by 0.14 per cent while the Germany's DAX was up 0.13 per cent.
Back home, 17 scrips out of the 30-share Sensex pack finished with losses while 13 counters ended with gains.
Major losers from the Sensex were Hindalco (1.86 pc), Infosys (1.46 pc), SBI (1.39 pc), Bajaj Auto (1.39 pc), Reliance Ind (1.27 pc), Sterlite Ind (1.04 pc), Hero Motoco (0.97 pc) and ONGC (0.89 pc).
However, M&M rose by 3.25 per cent, followed by HDFC (2.02 pc), Tata Power (1.81 pc), Wipro (1.09 pc) and TCS (0.98 pc).
"Just when we thought that the market was poised for some gains, once again selling pressure emerged after opening with a positive gap. Market participants seem to have adopted sell on rise strategy as every rise was taken as an opportunity to offload positions," said Amar Ambani, Head of Research, IIFL.
Among the sectoral indices, the BSE-Realty dropped by 3.02 per cent, followed by BSE-Oil&Gas (0.88 pc) and BSE-Metal (0.73 pc). BSE-Auto firmed up by 0.64 per cent and BSE-CD by 0.11 per cent.
The market breadth continued to remain negative as 1,801 stocks ended with losses while 1,052 closed with gains.
The total market turnover rose to Rs 1,958.06 crore from Rs 1,793.44 crore on Monday.
Meanwhile, FIIs sold shares worth Rs 1.52 crore on Monday as per provisional data with stock exchanges.